Uss Freedom: Boldly
by ShakeTass
Summary: After the end of the Dominion War and the years of rebuilding a new and changed United Federation of Planets returns Starfleet to their origional mission of exploration. A new long range exploration vessel with some new protocolls to guide them.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1, Be careful what you wish for. 

_Captain's log star date 75224.1_

_The crew is beginning to become frustrated, and quite frankly so am I. Finally, after so many years of war and destruction, the Federation embarks once again on its primary mission of exploration. They send us out to the frontier, we cross it and then…….. Nothing! _

_For the past 5 weeks we've not once encountered anything more interesting than a class nine comet. One can imagine the effects boredom is having on the overall atmosphere on the ship. There are a lot less smiles in the corridors in passing, more heated arguments over minor disagreements, that sort of things._

_The ship itself is running as smooth as she ever has, and I am confident that this ship and her crew are ready to face anything space has in store for us, I only hope that what is to come is more interesting than what has passed in this mission. _

Captain Keash Foultish switched of the log recording just as his COM badge chimed to announce a incoming transmission. He tapped it gently to open the channel. "Foultish here."

The disembodied voice of the Klingon second officer answered. "Commander P'Mip has detected a star system which contains a Minshar class planet."

Keash's heart rate shot up at that statement. "On my way, Keash out" he stammered and put on his uniform which he'd already taken off for the night. Suddenly all the fatigue he thought he'd been feeling had vanished and within minutes he was on his way to the bridge. When the turbo lift deposited him at the back of the bridge he could see the distant system on the main viewer. "report" he ordered.

"The star's size is comparable to that of Sol. The fourth planet from it is definitely Minshar class and preliminary scans show signs of civilisation. We're still to far out to say if its recent or not though." Reported Jox, appearing from behind P'Mip where she'd been looking at the science station's readouts. It never ceased to amaze Keash how radiant she managed to look in those standard uniforms.

Keash sat into his seat while Jox took the seat to the right of him. "Helm, set navigation into holding pattern at one tenth impulse. Tactical, launch two Terminators for cloaked perimeter patrol. Science, I want the Fury prepped and launched on a stealth recon mission asap." Keash ordered after taking in a deep breath. This was the moment where all the training in the new protocols and procedures came into play for the first time.

Fifteen minutes later two Terminator Tactical Superiority Strike Fighters were circling the Freedom under cloak and the Uss Fury, the Defiant class refit, left its custom bay in the belly of the Uss Freedom. While she undocked, the cloak engaged and nothing remained of her but the empty docking bay.

Keash was pleased with the efficient performance of his crew. So far, everything had gone just as they had trained for so many times. The Uss Fury would now approach the star system cautiously, continuously scanning for any indication of sentient life or hostile threats.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2, Doing the old things in new ways. 

With the end of the Dominion War and the devastation it had left things in the Alpha quadrant had changed significantly. The Romulan Empire had, after the Shinzon incident, almost self-destructed and split into two separate states. At the moment both those states were having a difficult time establishing their borders, consolidating their hold over their vassal worlds and keeping their technology from falling into the hands of dissident factions.

The ties between the Klingon Empire and the Federation had strengthened even more and more treaties were signed. Though no Klingon would ever admit it of course but some believed that the Klingon way of fighting war had decimated their military capabilities in a much higher degree as the Federation's, and that might be the reason the Klingon Empire was so eager to embrace their Federation neighbours as honourable brothers even after the war.

The Federation itself grew as a result of the war. Previously unaligned worlds which had been overrun by the Dominion had mostly decided to petition for membership and the Cardassians, or what was left of them, were now provisional members of the Federation as well.

This had, at fist, been more of a burden on the Federation than it was a blessing. The worlds that had joined mostly had suffered as much as any other under the crushing rule of the Dominion and the Cardassian's lack of resources was what drove them to conquer other worlds in the first place.

For fifteen years all of the resources the United Federation of Planets could bring to bare were poured into the rebuilding efforts. In that time the new political climate in the Alpha and Beta quadrants continued to change, and so did the Federation.

So when the time came once again for Starfleet to take up its original mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations and to boldly go where no one had gone before the rules and regulations that governed those who boldly went had to be revised and adapted to reflect the changed Federation.

The Romulan influences, by now partially reunited with their Vulcan brothers introduced more caution into the way things were approached and the Klingon influence, as well as the experiences with the Borg and the Dominion. Introduced more firepower into the way ships were designed. Scientific facilities were top priority because of the Federation's long experience with going where nothing might be what it seemed.

The result was the Freedom class Long Range Exploration Carrier.

The main vessel was a long boxlike shape with four retractable warp nacelles at the front and the back and packed a sizable amount of astrometrics, science and command and control equipment as well as a formidable armament. 20 pulse phaser cannons studded all throughout her outer hull, 20 photon and 20 quantum torpedo turrets, self regenerating ablative armour and the strongest shields ever to be carried off planet. It also carried within her a complement of 8 Terminator Tactical Superiority Strike Fighters 4 medium range armed personnel transports and one Defiant refit destroyer.

The Terminators were small, two seated, highly manoeuvrable low warp capable fighter craft capable of atmospheric manoeuvring. They were armed with two wing mounted forward facing pulse phaser cannons and two micro torpedo launchers with 10 micro torpedoes each. Their role was to protect the Freedom and the Fury while they were docked. The Fury seldom disconnected from the Freedom as the warp core was connected to the power grid of the Freedom while she was docked and contributed to the power supply to secondary and tertiary systems on board both vessels.

The medium range armed personnel transports were designed to be used as transport shuttles for troops or materials over short to medium distances and could be outfitted with a sensor module on top of it, making it a perfect vessel for extended scientific missions like surveys as well as getting 20 armed men and women or their supplies into dangerous places in a hurry. The single pulse phaser turret on the top and the phaser strip on the bottom may not look like much, especially on her boxy hull, but the girl could turn down many an unwanted suitor pretty hard never the less.

Though the opposition to sending out such a formidable force was great as one can imagine, especially with those who were part of the pre-dominion war Starfleet, the reasoning that experience had learned that the unknown was dangerous, and that the resources that went in to such exploratory endeavours was to great to send out without the ability to protect itself won out and the project spawned its three offspring.

The Uss Freedom, the Uss independence and the Uss Liberty. Each of the three were sent out in a different direction, and the Freedom, the first of her class, had been sent into the frontier of the Alpha quadrant.

And now they were here, ready for anything…. Except…….


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Disconcerting news 

"There's Incoming message from the Uss Fury sir. They report the planet is no longer inhabited. No energy emissions except for one at the planets equator. Preliminary scans indicate the civilisation on the planet was destroyed by violence. Possibly planetary bombardment" said Sheila, her voice betraying her rising trepidation at the information she had to relay.

"Put me through" ordered Keash, getting up to stand in front of his chair. The Klingon second officer and CO of the Uss Fury appeared on the view screen. "Soy, I want you to do a thorough sweep of the entire system. Catalogue anything that might be artificial and make sure there are no dormant automated defence systems or anything and then return. If there's no threat to the Freedom we will enter the system and conduct a thorough investigation." He told his friend. "It will be done. Soy' out".

As Keash sat back down in his seat he noticed the look Jox was giving him. "You didn't ask" she said at his questioning look back.

"Asked what?" Keash returned.

"When.." Jox simply stated.

"When what?" Keash asked, not getting it.

"Don't you want to know when the destruction took place?" Jox sighed rolling back her eyes.

Keash smiled, but it was P'Mip who answered. He straightened a bit, gave a tug on his tunic, as if he was about to go on stage to give a speech.

"The Captain has not inquired to that information because it has no bearing on the actions he must take. It is not important when the destruction took place.

Whether it took place a thousand years ago or an hour ago is irrelevant.

There do not seem to be any threats within sensor range at this moment. If the Fury does not detect any other threats during her sweep of the system there is no reason for this ship not to investigate further.

As this system contains the only M class planet we have been able to detect since our mission began, the fact it is no longer inhabited, even if the previous inhabitants had come to a violent end, makes it a potentially very valuable location for the Federation to build a Colony.

The Captain has little choice but to investigate, and the question of when the end of the planets inhabitants came will no doubt be discovered as will the question of how they perished."

The Vulcan turned back to his monitor the second the last word had left his mouth and was lost in his science console's readouts as if he'd not even noticed there'd been a conversation at all, let alone one he'd taken part in.

"Oh but aren't you even a little bit curious?" Jox asked, smiling. She knew of course that even though Vulcans often were very curious about a lot of things, the way she expressed hers would be considered annoyingly emotional by them.

"I know i am... I'm dying to know what happened on that planet... don't you Captain?" she added, hoping to get Keash to go along with her. Keash wasn't in the mood though. There was much to be done.

"Let's just start preparations for the survey shall we? We're going to do this thoroughly and efficiently. Assemble teams and draw up duty rosters for the away teams. As soon as possible i want as much tricorders and eyes on that planet as we can put on it. I'll be in my ready room. You have the bridge Jox." he ordered and stood, tugging his tunic.

Maybe it was the fact that after five weeks of almost empty space the one planet that had harboured life looked to be the scene of unthinkable death and destruction but something wasn't feeling right to him. A gut feeling telling him that whatever was waiting for the Uss Freedom and her crew was going to bring them a lot of problems.

As Jox took the center seat vacated by the Captain she couldn't help but wonder about the planet they'd found and what had happened to her people. And maybe, subconsciously perhaps, she wondered if what had happened to them could happen to herself and the crew too.

Archaeology had never held any lure for her anyway but ever since she'd been on that survey mission to the Bihhaerzzi ruins on Baai Bahl II and saw the silhouetted markings on the walls of people. Those white images, of the victims in their death poses against the charred black walls, made when the small but powerful neutronic warheads flashed them out of existence had given her nightmares for months. She was in no way looking forward to spending day after day trudging through the reminders of so much death and suffering.

_Captain's log supplemental._

_The Fury has returned and Soy has just reported on his findings in the conference room. I am glad i have invited the entire senior staff to hear his report, as his findings are quite disconcerting. _

_The scans Fury took from orbit confirm that a once thriving civilisation was once bombed into extinction from high orbit using weapons with ruthless efficiency. _

_Visuals show the lines of the impact craters, which are large enough to be seen from space and each one is an equal distance from each and every other one. Exactly 5000 Kilometres apart... The entire population of a planet methodically exterminated from orbit..._

_And the civilisation that had lived on the planet appear to have been quite advanced too. Not some backward low tech natives who weren't aware of what was happening to them. _

_Scans show that there are remains of a planetary cold fusion energy production and distribution network. Metal alloys sensors detected in vast amounts in the planets cities that lied in between the blast radiuses were also found, in smaller amounts on some planetary bodies in this star system as well, indicating they'd already expanded out into space. All the places where the sensors picked up those alloys though they also detected the telltale pockmarks of multi-isoton strong explosions. _

_What can drive a people to such extreme measures of violence i cannot understand? True, humanity has had its own horrors in its history, of genocide and close brushes with extinction but that was us doing it to ourselves. Not even the horrible fate suffered by the Cardassians at the hands of the Dominion was as completely and utterly annihilating and it wasn't as efficiently and ruthlessly carried out either._

_What deepens my concerns even further is the lack of particles in the interplanetary area's of space. It indicates no particles or debris that would inevitably be left somewhere after a battle had been waged in this star system. Either the defenders didn't defend themselves or the attacker was even so sick as to destroy the remains of their victims. I suspect the former as no such effort to conceal the results of their ruthlessness on the planet was made._

_I have ordered the Freedom into the star system and should be in orbit around the planet, which we have yet to name, in a few minutes. As we achieve orbit i shall order the Fury to commence a mapping mission to map the area around this star-system have the APT's conduct a closer survey mission of the other planets in this system. _

_The remaining Terminators will be sent out on CAP as well, just to make sure. As soon as the engines are at station keeping and the Freedom is in standard high orbit the sensors can be fully powered up and hopefully we'll have some answers._

_An away team, led by commander P'Mip shall beam down first to investigate the sole energy reading that seems to remain on the planet and establish if and how a subsequent planetary survey should be conducted._

Stepping onto the bridge after supplementing the log with the disturbing results of the Fury's preliminary sweep across the system Keash could almost feel the tension. It seemed a few degrees warmer somehow.

He knew of course that that was only in his mind as the temperature on the bridge never ever varied due to its climate control that had been nearly perfected over the course of a couple of centuries.

On the screen the planet which was their destination started to fill the view screen. As he sat down in the Captains chair ensign Shake Tass reported "We're in standard high orbit sir. Power consumption is holding at station keeping sir"

That was the moment, Keash knew, the scientists on the Fury had been waiting for. With the engines no longer in need of most of the energy pumped out of her 2 warp cores the full strength of the Freedom's mighty sensors could finally be unleashed. P'Mip commented more than reported as his science station got the information and analyses through.

"The planet is remarkably similar to Earth. Essentially the same atmospheric composition, similar global temperature distribution, 1.032 G gravity and slightly farther away from its sun which compensates for the suns slightly larger size." He rattled, sounding like a recording.

"Ah, the surface is completely covered with craters of approximately 250 kilometres in diameter. The destruction pattern is so precise it cannot have been done by any other means than automation... fascinating... The destruction pattern is indiscriminate. Untargeted." He mumbled as a new stream of data splashed onto his displays.

Soy scowled at this. "They did not even bother to aim! They just sent... machines to do the killing! That is without honour!" he bellowed in true disgust. To him an entire planet of people to have been made to die such dishonourable deaths was too much to bare.

"I agree Mr. Soy. Please make sure the Terminators keep focussed. If machines did this they might just be around somewhere. I don't want to be caught with my pants. Tell them to be just as focussed on their duty as i trust you to be."

To anyone else the nod Soy gave Keash at that comment before he turned his attention back to his own console was one of approval Keash and Soy both knew Soy had nodded his apology for his outburst that had forced Keash to remind Soy of his duty as Chief Tactical Officer.

He had to set the example for others to aspire to, and outbursts like that inevitably invited response, leading to more outbursts, That may work wonders for morale on a Klingon battle cruiser but not in Starfleet.

P'Mip was getting more information and reported it. "Some of the ruins on the planet are almost one million years old. The destruction however took place only 150 years ago." Even though he, more than any of them, understood the implications of his statement the way P'Mip said it sounded like someone stating a random string of numbers.

"There are no life forms on the planet larger than a meter in height." He mumbled almost as if it were a meaningless statement. It meant that the only creatures that survived at the time had been either hiding in caves or burrowed somewhere underground.

Keash turned his gaze towards the viewscreen, taking in the view of the pocmarked planet resembling a cloud covered golfball. "P'Mip, assemble the away team and go take a look." He ordered.


End file.
